big data

/bigdata/nosql/introThe Big Data ecosystem consists of multiple products, each of them having some or all the characteristics we were evoking in our definitions. Not only they will handle high volumes of data, but they will allow you to process data without specific schema (Variety) quickly (Velocity). This is a list of products and a short description of what they do.

Before digging into this world made of huge amount of data, streaming data flows and anayltic applications, let's fix some basic ideas.
Let's define the ground concepts of this world.

Big Data

Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data "size" is a constantly moving target, as of 2012 ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data.

The evolution of captured digital information by today enterprises is evolving following a kind of hyperbolic curve.
The reduction of the storage cost, the reduction of the cost of the compute resources, the ubiquity of digital access (PC, Internet, smartphones, tablets, …), the evolution toward a digital world are factors creating more and more sources of digital information.